There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.
I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.
In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
Laziness never arrived at the attainment of a good wish.
I like to think of myself at home in the armchair, writing, smoking and occasionally wandering down the shop.
Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.
Anything that makes weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.
It is wonderful when you don't have the fear, and a lot of the time I don't ... I focus on what needs to be done instead.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.
Do it again on the next verse, and people think you meant it.
I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.
In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone.
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
